This and that
by Asrielle
Summary: A series of snippets in time from the Marauders' years at Hogwarts. T for a bit of bad language, innuendo, and some blood.
1. Dreams and Dementors

Remus Lupin was dreaming.

In reality, he was on a train headed for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; in his dream, he was already there, sixteen years into the past.

Sunlight was pouring through the windows, onto the heads of the Gryffindor sixth years. Professor McGonagall was lecturing on how to turn a pineapple into a porcupine, with a promise that the class would practice the spell during its next Transfiguration lesson.

Remus looked from his notes on the subject. He had the most important points neatly copied word for word from Professor McGonagall's lecture. Curious, and feeling he had a handle on the lesson, he looked around at his fellow Gryffindors. Sirius wasn't even trying to pay attention; he'd fallen asleep resting his head on his hand and his elbow on his desk. Remus thought he could see a little sliver of drool coming out the corner of Sirius's mouth. James was in the same position, staring blankly at Professor McGonagall. He'd drawn little hearts all over his parchment and filled them in with the letters L.E. Peter, on the other hand, was furiously scribbling, making such loud scratching noises with his quill that Remus briefly wondered why Professor McGonagall hadn't stopped her lecture to ask him to stop. Remus leaned slightly to his right, toward Peter's desk, to see what his friend was writing so anxiously; Peter appeared to be attempting to copy down every word Professor McGonagall said, important or not.

Remus raised his eyebrows slightly and prepared to focus on the lecture once again when the bell rang. Sirius jumped and banged his legs off the desk, which jolted James into a more alert state (and started him guffawing), and Peter hastily scribbled the last of Professor McGonagall's lesson, right down to her final half-finished sentence.

_My friends, _Remus thought wryly. _The future of the wizarding world. _He smirked at that and put his own Transfiguration textbook, his parchment, quill and ink bottle into his bag, then stood and waited for the others to catch up.

"I think I fell asleep for a minute," Sirius said groggily.

"More like twenty minutes," James pointed out.

"Well, the sunlight was very warm, you can hardly blame me...especially since we were out all night -"

"Shh!" Peter hissed as Professor McGonagall walked by them, headed for the staffroom. "Be careful, Sirius, we're not supposed to be out after dark!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and puckered his lips at Professor McGonagall's retreating form. "Don't be daft, Wormtail, McGonagall is secretly in love with me and would never punish us," he said, running a hand through his dark, shaggy hair.

"She put you in detention just last week," James pointed out.

"I think what you are trying to say, dear Prongs, is 'detention,'" Sirius said, making air quotations around the word and wiggling his eyebrows.

James snorted as the group walked through the front doors of the castle. "You were filing old exams. Remember? You complained about it for the rest of the week?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sirius said loftily. "I happen to know that Professor McGonagall and I enjoyed a romantic candlelit dinner by the fireside in her office -"

"That would explain why you came back to the common room whining about how hungry you were," Remus laughed.

"All right, fine!" Sirius exclaimed, giving up the ruse. "I filed old exams and she didn't say a word to me aside from 'Good evening, Mr. Black, you will be filing old exams tonight,' and 'That will do, Mr. Black, thank you.'" He pouted, causing a group of fifth year girls passing by to giggle and stare. "Happy now?"

"Ecstatic," James said, smiling brightly at the group of girls, who burst into more giggles.

The boys made their way down to their favorite tree by the lake. As they sat in the shade, Remus felt the difference in temperature. It was getting colder by the second...the dream figures of his friends faded away...he was on the Hogwarts Express, and it was freezing...

Remus awoke with a jolt, hearing the children in his compartment chattering.

"Quiet!" he said hoarsely, trying to force himself to wake up. He conjured a handful of flames to light the pitch black compartment, and realized at the same moment that the Hogwarts Express had stopped completely.

And the cold...only one thing could cause such cold...

"Stay where you are," he told the children in the cabin with him. They froze, and he recognized Harry Potter among them. Dumbledore had warned him about the dementors, but he hadn't said anything about them stopping the train to do a search for his traitor friend, Sirius Black. Remus shook his head, trying to clear the last of the dream from the past out of his mind.


	2. Moping and Snowcovered

**Moping and snow-covered**

_James_

James Potter was moping.

He had asked Lily Evans to go to Hogsmeade with him on Valentine's Day, and her response, while polite, did not ease the righteous anger that rose in him when he saw her walking down to the village with Severus Snape. How could Lily spend time with that greasy git when she could be with James, who showered daily and even remembered to wear clean shirts under his robes most of the time?

His inner turmoil was quickly put out of his mind when a rather tightly packed snowball smacked him on the ass. James turned around to see Sirius, grinning, Peter, looking nervous (when wasn't Peter looking nervous these days?) and Remus, smirking but pale. The full moon was tomorrow night, and while Remus was in no pain, James knew, until the transformation actually took place, Remus was always anxious the day before. Remus was constantly worried he would eat someone, or hurt one of his friends, despite the many full moons the four had run around Hogwarts with no such event taking place.

James figured he could concentrate on something besides Lily for a while; as long as he didn't have to turn around and see her walking to the village with Snivellus, or see them in the village, or find them behind a cottage kissing each other -

Another snowball hit him, this time dangerously close to his groin.

"Oy!" He shouted. "I need that!"

"Shall I smack your face instead? I don't think you need it..." Sirius crouched down, still grinning, to make another snowball.

"You hit me in the face with one of those and I'll curse your -"

"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall was cautiously making her way up the hill from Hogsmeade, and before James even turned around, he knew she was scandalized.

"I was going to say his face, Professor, honestly, I was," James said, spinning around to face his Head of House.

She eyed him beadily, then looked over his shoulder at the others behind him. Sirius was still crouched down, but had stopped in the middle of packing another snowball – he looked as though he had eaten a particularly rotten flavor of Bertie Bott's beans. Remus now had a pinched look on his face, as though trying hard not to burst out laughing. Peter was picking invisible snowflakes off his gloves.

"Very well, Potter," Professor McGonagall said. "But I don't ever want to catch you in the midst of saying such an uncouth thing again!" And with that she strode on up the hill.

James let out a woosh of breath; Remus turned to watch Professor McGonagall and exploded into a fit of laughter as soon as she was out of sight. Peter giggled nervously; Sirius had fallen onto his butt with the force of his great barking laugh.

"'Honestly, I was'!'" Sirius mocked in a high-pitched voice. "'Oh, let me polish your boots, Professor McGonagall!'"

"I didn't say that," James muttered sulkily. "She only wants to keep your bits safe, Sirius, that's all."

"Well," Sirius said, brushing the snow off himself, "many, many women want to do that."

James picked up the remnants of the snowballs Sirius had thrown at him and packed them together into a larger sphere. Pretending the snowball was Snape's head, he gave an almighty kick and watched the snowball fly to pieces.

"Come off it, James, they're only friends," Remus said, having recovered sufficiently from his laughing fit.

"Yeah," Sirius said, ruffling James's hair as he walked past him, "most girls prefer men who shower."

"What's your secret, then?" Peter said.

"I think it might be my animal magnetism, Wormtail," Sirius said, and let out a bark of laughter again.

"What girl wouldn't want to kiss something that smells of wet dog?" James said, feeling a little better now that he couldn't see Lily and Snape walking ahead.

"Or of musky stag," Sirius countered. He paused a moment, head tilted, then said, "Hang on, that's not fair. That sounds like a regular cologne. 'Musky stag,' on sale this Christmas!"

"Mangy stag, more like," Remus joined in.

"Oh ho ho! Don't think you smell like roses, Moony," James replied.

"I would just hope to smell like soap," Remus said.

"Sirius, didn't you have a date today?" Peter asked, not having a crafty reply to the others' repartee.

"I did," Sirius said. "Professor McGonagall is waiting for me at the castle."

James snorted, sounding not unlike his stag self when it scented dung. "Anyway, you lying fiend, here's Honeydukes. Anyone need chocolate?"

"Desperately," Remus replied, and the boys walked into the warmth of the shop.


	3. Polka dots and punishment

**Polka dots and punishment**

_Sirius_

Sirius Black was standing in the fifth floor corridor wearing red and white polka dot boxers, and nothing else.

He had just been shoved out of the nearby empty classroom by his girlfriend – now his ex-girlfriend, he supposed – because he had met her here wearing only his boxers, hoping for much more than he got. He had borrowed James's Invisibility Cloak to get here, and now, the cloak was in the classroom, which his girlfriend, now his ex-girlfriend, had just locked him out of.

Luckily for Sirius, it was Christmas holidays and the middle of the night.

"Please let me back in," he hissed through the door. "I only need to get something I left in there."

"You didn't leave anything in here, I would see it, and I can't see anything," his now-ex-girlfriend sobbed. "You're such a git, Sirius!"

"I know," he said soothingly. "I know. Let me back in so I can apologize properly."

"No!"

Sirius heaved a sigh and wondered if he could make it back up to the Gryffindor dormitory without being seen. He wished he had borrowed the map. As it was, he was stuck in the hallway and James would likely kill him if he came back without the Invisibility Cloak. Sirius sat down in front of the classroom door and stretched his legs out in front of him. He considered transforming into Padfoot to get from here to the dormitory, but if someone saw a great shaggy dog in the corridor, that would probably draw just as much – if not more – attention than Sirius wandering in his boxers. He weighed his options.

"Are you gone? I'm not coming out unless you're gone!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and didn't bother to reply. He vaguely remembered a secret passage that led directly to the classroom behind him, but getting to the entrance would take him all the way down to the third floor before he could start back up through the passage. So that was out.

"Sirius?"

He scratched his head and considered unlocking the door with magic, but he didn't have his wand with him, and anyway, Eliza had probably locked the door with magic to make _Alohomora _useless. So that wouldn't work either.

"Sirius, are you still out there?"

He decided to be very quiet until Eliza walked out of the classroom. He was pretty sure she didn't know about the secret passage. Being very quiet was very hard.

Suddenly an incredibly loud clatter and gonging noise occurred around the bend in the corridor. Sirius jumped; Eliza gave a little yelp.

"Peeves," Sirius groaned. He jumped to his feet and banged on the door behind him. "Please let me in, it's Peeves out there," he pleaded.

"No!"

Footsteps sounded at the other end of the corridor.

"Ah, God, it's Filch, Eliza, please," Sirius begged. "I'll do anything if you let me back in."

"Anything?"

Now he was in for it. Sirius decided to go for it as the footsteps grew closer. "Anything."

The door opened extremely quickly, and Sirius wondered if it had even been locked in the first place. Eliza grabbed him and dragged him into the classroom just as Filch turned the corner.

"So then we went out the secret passage and I had to share the cloak with her and now she knows about it, but she promised not to tell," Sirius explained to James later on, sitting (now fully clothed) around the Gryffindor common room fire the next day.

"What I'm more interested in, Padfoot, is what you had to do for her," Remus said, looking up from his book.

Sirius grinned sheepishly. "She put a collar on me and walked me around the grounds."

"Come on now, really, what did she have you do?" James asked, leaning forward. "Polish her shoes? Suck on her toes? Promise to marry her?"

"I had to send a letter to her parents apologizing for being a bad influence on her."

James roared with laughter. "No!"

Sirius nodded solemnly. "Oh yes. And I had to tell them that she had broken up with me and I would not be bothering her anymore. She made me write it right there in the classroom, me in my skivvies and Peeves and Filch howling at each other right outside."

"Well," Remus said, when James had finally settled down, "at least it was a learning experience for you."

"Oh, absolutely," Sirius said, grinning. "Next time I'll go completely naked, get more of a rush from it all."


	4. Animals large and animals small

**Animals large and animals small**

_Peter_

Peter Pettigrew was spending the full moon as a rat instead of a fifth-year.

Everything was so very _frightening_ as a rat. He could smell animals, _huge_ animals, animals that enjoyed eating rats, animals with enormous teeth who would floss their enormous teeth with his little rat tail – and then his human mind got some control and he realized the huge animals with enormous teeth were his friends.

Peter skittered across the floor and nearly fell through a hole to the Shrieking Shack's cellar below. His friends had transformed outside, being so large, Remus included. Peter could hear with his little rat ears the great stag stomping and the great dog barking. He skittered through the crack between the front door and the floor and reared up on his hind legs to see his very tall friends with enormous teeth.

Here was the great stag – _James, _Peter thought sternly to himself; he must not allow the animal mind to regain total control – snorting, his breath showing in the cold December air. Christmas holidays were coming soon, Peter remembered suddenly, and he hadn't yet found gifts for his friends. He sniffed the frosty ground, smelling worms and roots and tiny living things with tiny teeth that would not eat him, and wondered, once again, as he wondered so many times before and would continue to wonder, why he was so small when the others were big.

Sirius stopped barking and led the others into the forest, Remus right behind him, growling, head swinging this way and that. Peter could smell more than see these things; could hear them and feel them moving along to the Forbidden Forest. Peter wished he could have been a lion or a hippogriff or something large, so he wouldn't always have to be last in the line as they headed toward the forest. He smelled an owl and scurried closer to the others, afraid, always afraid as a rat, and as a boy, until they made it far into the forest.

* * *

Dawn came and the boys were back in the Shrieking Shack, this time on the second floor, in what should have been a bedroom but instead was bare walls covered with scratches and a tiny bit of blood from when Sirius tried to attack Remus that first time. Peter shivered and drew his coat closer around him as James gave Remus some chocolate and Sirius conjured a fire of blue flames that would not smoke and give them away.

"All right, Remus?"

Remus was lying curled into a fetal position with his head resting on James's thigh. He groaned and clapped a weak arm to his head – transforming, he said, always gave him a massive headache, a headache beyond all headaches, a no-Peter-you-wouldn't-understand-you-never-get-headaches headache. Peter frowned and looked down at his hands, dirty from the forest, and his shoes, one of which Sirius had accidentally slobbered on and chewed a bit.

Peter thought about what Severus had said about Voldemort. Voldemort was trying to recruit followers, Severus said, in a not-you-never-you-Peter-Pettigrew kind of way, but Peter thought maybe he could join up, he was a pureblood wizard after all, his parents would be proud of him finally, maybe. And no one would chew on his shoes.

"Chocolate..." Remus growled hoarsely, and James handed him another piece from the large Honeydukes slab that he'd collected for this purpose during the last Hogsmeade visit.

Peter checked his watched. "We should move soon," he mumbled.

"Don't be a prat, Peter, Remus is in horrible shape," James said.

Every now and then, Remus would have a particularly bad transformation, Peter knew. He would have more pain and more trouble controlling the wolf-mind. When the night was over, Remus would groan and eat large quantities of chocolate and sometimes still had to spend the day in the hospital wing. Peter wondered what all the fuss in becoming Animagi was if Remus was still going to feel like crap in the morning.

Peter waited another half hour; Remus was sleeping now. Sirius floated Remus's limp form back along the passageway from the Shrieking Shack to the Whomping Willow. James collected the blankets and chocolate wrappers and threw them haphazardly into a corner before following. Peter led the way; this was the only time Peter ever led the way for them, only because he was shortest and so could reach out and touch the knob on the Whomping Willow that would stop it whomping them all.

* * *

Madam Pomfrey was waiting for them, shivering in her bathrobe and scowling. "I knew this would happen, I had a feeling it would be a bad one," she muttered grumpily. "Couldn't sleep all night for worrying about him, the poor boy. Where did you find him, then?"

"Edge of the forest," Sirius muttered.

"Well, I've got him, back to bed with you lot, go on, shoo," Madam Pomfrey said, stifling a yawn.

The day was bleak and cold and Sirius and James, Peter was sure, fell asleep before they even hit their beds, but Peter felt wide awake. He lay in bed until his watch said 9 a.m., and then he went down to breakfast, where he found Severus waiting, just as Severus had promised he would be.

"Well?" Severus said coldly.

"I'll do it," Peter replied, thinking of chewed-up shoes and being told he was being a prat. "I want in."

Severus smiled icily and started telling Peter what to do.


	5. Trumpets and Boggarts

**Trumpets and Boggarts**

_Remus_

Remus Lupin gave a great yelp and jumped out of bed, nearly taking the bed curtains with him as he fell to the floor and rolled onto his back.

It was the first Saturday of term, and he'd been looking forward to sleeping in, but – he glanced at his watch – it was 8 a.m. and now he was extremely awake. James, Sirius and Peter were all standing over him; Sirius was holding a trumpet that looked a bit banged-up and over-used.

"A trumpet?" Remus asked, sitting up. "At eight in the morning?"

Sirius grinned innocently. "No time for slacking off, Moony! We've got a lot of work to do today!"

Remus rubbed his elbow; he'd bashed it against the floor when he fell out of bed. "A trumpet. A trumpet?"

"It's from my cousin's house," Sirius said, still grinning, albeit much less innocently now. "I found it in the attic, it was her husband's and he said I could have it." Sirius yanked the mouthpiece from the rest of the instrument and blew through it, making a feeble wailing sound.

"You sound like Peeves blowing a raspberry," Remus said, standing up at last. He checked the bed curtains – miraculously, the material had remained on its hanging rings, attached to the railing connecting the four posts together. "What work have we got to do?"

"James has found us a boggart in a broom cupboard," Sirius said gleefully. "Good old James."

"Sirius, my darling stinky-kins," James replied, clapping Sirius on the back. "Shall we go henceforth to breakfast?"

"Indubitably," Sirius said, grinning.

"It's eight in the morning," Remus whined, but the two were already out the door. He looked at Peter, who Sirius must have woken just before he awoke Remus; Peter was still tying his shoes. "Peter. It's eight in the morning."

"I think they've gone mad at last," Peter replied, grimacing. "I hope they've got those humungous waffles at breakfast, I'm starving..." he walked out of the room.

Remus groaned, threw his bed a longing look, and dressed as quickly as possible considering he was groggy. His heart was still beating twice as fast as normal from the wake-up trumpet call. As he entered the Gryffindor common room, he was surprised to see the others hadn't gone down to breakfast without him. He was more surprised to see that Sirius was still holding the trumpet.

"Er...are you going to play Glenn Miller for the boggart?" he asked.

"Who's Glenn Miller?" Sirius said blankly.

Remus fought the urge to roll his eyes, smack himself in the forehead and give a skeptic guffaw, all at the same time. "Being friends with you is completely exhausting."

Sirius merely winked and led the way out the portrait hole.

The Great Hall was empty except for some sleepy Hufflepuffs, who, James said, were all on the Quidditch team and were most likely getting an early practice in. "Glad our captain doesn't make us get up early," James said, shaking his head. "Imagine trying to hold a Quaffle while you're still half-asleep."

"But you're up early today anyway," Peter pointed out.

"Yeah, but this is for fun, it would be much worse if I had to put effort into anything at this hour," James said.

"At what hour do you put effort into anything, James?" Remus asked teasingly.

"At night, when he dreams of his sweet Lily Evans," Sirius answered, before James could do more than open his mouth to respond. James punched Sirius on the arm; Sirius retaliated by jabbing James in the armpit. "You know it's true!" Sirius insisted. "How many times have you asked her to marry you this week?"

"Just the once," James mumbled, turning slightly pink.

"Oh, he's blushing, Sirius, give him a break," Remus said. "He can't handle the great amount of passion he feels for his darling flower."

Sirius laughed. "All right, all right, but only because there's a boggart to be had. All done? Let's go, then!"

The group trooped off to the Charms corridor, which looked strange this early on a Saturday; it was completely deserted.

"How exactly did you come across this boggart?" Peter asked.

"I was on my way back from the kitchens, I think it was Tuesday...yeah, Tuesday – and I wasn't watching where I was going -"

"He was following Lily," Sirius interjected.

"And I somehow ended up on this floor," James finished, emphasizing the last word of the sentence with another punch to Sirius's arm.

"He was stalking her," Sirius said, earning himself yet another punch.

"Here it is -" James stopped abruptly, causing Peter to run into him and nearly fall. James was pointing to a broom cupboard that the four had passed countless times on their way to the Charms classroom.

"Doesn't Professor Flitwick live here somewhere?" Peter said, looking around as if expecting to see the tiny professor jump from a doorway and scold them for being in the corridor. "Oughtn't we wait until it's more likely he'll be awake?"

"You worry too much, Wormtail," James and Sirius said simultaneously. They pointed at each other. "You owe me a Galleon," they said, then grinned at each other.

"How about I give you a Galleon and then you give it back to me?" James asked.

"Fair enough," Sirius said. "OK, on the count of three -" he stepped up to the cupboard door; "One -" Peter backed away to the opposite wall; "Two -" James stepped forward; "Three -" Remus tightened his grip on his wand.

Sirius's mother stepped out of the cupboard, wearing long black robes with a high lace collar.

"Oho," said Sirius. "_Riddikulus!"_

_Crack. _The boggart turned toward James and became a hideous child, with bright green eyes like Lily's but Snape's greasy black hair and hooked nose. The child sneered up at James, then -

"_Riddikulus!_" he cried.

_Crack_. The boggart stumbled, melting into a silvery orb that hovered five feet off the ground, floating toward Remus.

"This gets a bit old after a while," Remus said tiredly, then, "_Riddikulus!"_

The boggart turned in a circle, changing swiftly into Sirius's mother, then the ugly child, then the moon – then, with the loudest crack yet, vanished into a thin vapor.

Remus stepped over to close the cupboard. "We're getting better. Poor Peter didn't have a go, we finished it too soon."

"T-that's OK," Peter said shakily. "I don't mind, honest. Y-you all were fine without me."

They headed back to Gryffindor Tower, Sirius removing the trumpet from an inner pocket of his robes as they went.


	6. Birthdays and Blood

**Birthdays and Blood**

_James_

James Potter was wearing his Invisibility Cloak.

He was Head Boy, and the most he'd used the cloak for this year, before this March night, was to nick food from the kitchens, which was, in fact, what he was about to do. He took a moment, heading down the stone steps to the Entrance Hall, to mourn the lost days of youth – but it was a short period of grief. Lily was dating him now; Voldemort was growing more powerful every day; there was simply no space in their lives for the things that he and his friends had done even up to last year.

But this was a special occasion; this was Remus's birthday.

James was alone, as the Invisibility Cloak could only fit one person at a time now – they were s imply too tall now to fit underneath it – but he planned to use a special charm Lily had taught him to levitate the food up to the common room. Arriving at his destination, James tickled the pear and watched as it chuckled. When the pear had turned into an enormous door handle, James entered the kitchens and swept off the cloak, but too soon – for there, standing less than a foot away from him, was Severus Snape.

Severus turned slowly as the portrait swung back against the wall with a loud thud.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" he asked snidely.

James decided to go for being nice. Then he could tell Lily he was nice to Snivellus and she would kiss him for hours. "It's Remus's birthday. I'm getting food for the common room."

Severus snorted. "Don't you think Remus would prefer raw meat to cakes just now?"

"That's not for another few days," James said shortly. Being spoken to as though he were a piece of dung was one thing, but James's patience wore extremely thin when faced with someone who insulted his friend. "So he'll prefer cakes." James asked a sleepy-looking house elf to help him get some sweets and some leftover chicken – he glared at Severus, daring him to comment on the meat. "What are you doing here, then?"

"None of your business," Severus snapped. "Tell me, Potter, are you still dating that Mudblood?" Severus smirked as James's face darkened significantly.

"Don't – you – call – her – that," James said, breathing hard through his nose.

"I'll call her what she is," Severus replied softly, scowling. "She's a Mudblood. But no worry, Potter," he said scathingly. "The Dark Lord will soon cut her out -" Before he finished his sentence, James had punched him hard in the nose, causing him to fall back against the wall. The pots and pans hanging from the wall clanged ominously, and Severus drew out his wand. "_Sectumsempra!" _he cried, causing multiple slashes to form across James's torso.

James staggered backward, looking down at his torn robes, through which blood began to seep. Severus walked up to James until they were inches apart.

"I'd watch out, Potter," he said silkily. "The Dark Lord is rising."

"The _Dark Lord_, Snivellus, can go fuck himself," James snarled, now holding his torso and leaning against the wall.

"You'll see!" Severus said, his voice barely above a whisper; he was shaking with rage, still holding his sleeve to his nose. "It won't be long now!" And with that, he swept out of the kitchen.

James tried to trip Severus when he turned to leave, but was surprised to find himself sitting on the ground. The pain in his midriff was increasing; the sleepy house-elf approached him cautiously.

"Please," James said. "Go to the Gryffindor common room and tell Sirius Black that I need help down here."

"Right away, sir!" the house elf replied, looking worried, and disappeared with a loud _crack._

* * *

Sirius was pinning pink feathers to the posters of Remus that Lily had helped him hang around the common room as though they were ears.

"I can see you doing that, you know," Remus said idly.

"Moony! Don't be such a spoilsport! It's your birthday!" Sirius replied as he reached to pin up the final feather; the stepladder he was standing on tipped precariously. "There! All set! Now to wait for James..." Sirius checked his watch, waving his wand simultaneously to float the ladder back into the closet he had found it in. "Shouldn't he be back by now?"

Remus turned a page in the book he was reading. "I'm sure he's fine, maybe he's found Lily and they're off snogging somewhere."

Sirius flopped onto the squashy couch in front of the fire, which was roaring merrily; March had been nothing but freezing rain and howling wind so far. "Wish I had someone to snog right now," Sirius said moodily.

"That's sweet how you say that, Sirius, as if you couldn't go over to any of those girls -" Remus gestured toward a group of fifth years who were giggling at a table near the bulletin board across the room "- and start having a shag immediately."

"Touchy touchy, Moony," Sirius said, laughing. "Would you like me to pick one up for you as well? Some girls like it rough -"

"I do not _like it rough_," Remus said, turning another page in his book; his cheeks went faintly pink. "I like it just normal and – and normal."

"Not even on your birthday?" Sirius said, and he roared with laughter. "A birthday treat for Remus Lupin!" he shouted to the common room at large, silencing the giggling girls. "Come one, come all!" and he cracked himself up so thoroughly that he rolled off the couch and onto the floor. Remus slumped down so low in his seat that his knees were practically level with his ears.

_Crack._

A house elf with bright blue eyes, wearing the custom Hogwarts tea towel, had appeared in the common room. It looked around wildly, then spotted Sirius on the floor and ran up to him.

Sirius, still chuckling, looked at the house elf. "What is it? James need help carrying the food?"

"No, sir!" squeaked the house elf. "James Potter is in trouble, sir! He's been hurt!"

Remus and Sirius looked at each other, then to the house elf.

"Hurt?" They said simultaneously.

The house elf nodded vigorously, its batlike ears flapping. "Yes, sirs! Another wizard has injured him, sir, in the kitchen! He is in bad shape! Hurry!" and the house elf Disapparated without another word.

In less than a second, Remus and Sirius were on their feet, running for the portrait hole and the kitchen seven floors below.


	7. Birthdays and Blood 2

**Birthdays and Blood (Part II)**

_Sirius_

Sirius Black was running toward the kitchen, Remus Lupin on his heels.

"Snape, that bastard, I'll kill him, I swear I'll kill him!" Sirius panted as they ran down the steps to the Entrance Hall.

"Get in line," Remus huffed, trying not to slip on the slick stone floor as they rounded the corner to the kitchen's corridor.

They skidded to a halt in front of it, the castle eerily silent behind them. Sirius reached up and not so much tickled as jabbed the pear into cooperating. They rushed into the room and found James slumped on the floor to their right. He was unconscious.

"Bastard!" Sirius growled as he knelt next to James. "Help me pick him up, Moony, get his other arm," he said, and together they lifted James.

"We should take him to Madam Pomfrey," Moony said, looking at the front of James's robes, now soaked with blood. "What the hell kind of spell did this?"

"Dark magic, I bet, Snivellus has been aligned with it his whole damn life," Sirius said angrily. His eyes were close to black with rage.

The house elf who had alerted them to their friend's injury pushed the portrait open for them with some difficulty – Remus threw a thanks over his shoulder at the creature as he and Sirius rushed back up the stairs, both panting heavily as they tried to run and carry James between them at the same time.

"Oh, this will never work, here, set him down a moment," Remus said hastily, and when Sirius had lowered James to the floor, Remus took out his wand. "_Mobilicorpus_," he hissed, and James floated a few inches into the air. "Let's go," he said, using his wand to direct James's body up the stairs as quickly as possible.

It seemed hours until the three were in front of the hospital wing. Sirius banged on the door.

"Madam Pomfrey!" he said, gasping for breath. "Let us in – it's James – he's -" the door swung open and Madam Pomfrey gave them an appraising look. Her eyes widened when her glance fell on James.

"In he goes then, in he goes, come on," she said, holding the door for them and simultaneously lighting the infirmary.

They carried James over to a bed; he groaned when they set him down upon it.

"He's coming 'round!" Sirius said, and was promptly pushed out of the way by Madam Pomfrey.

"Dear dear, this does look a sight, doesn't it? Don't worry boys, it's much shallower than it looks – good Lord, the blood! Some kind of trick, they're only scratches – _what _you students do after hours -" she bustled off to her office, continuing to mutter to herself.

James opened his eyes.

"James? James, are you all right mate?" Sirius looked down into James's face.

"Better if you stop breathing on me, you great git," James mumbled. Then he scowled. "I'm going to bloody kill Snivellus."

"Get in line," Remus said again, frowning. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Well..." James winced. "I won't be fighting any epic battles soon..."

"Must have been some sort of trick, made him feel faint as though he was losing tons of blood, but – he hasn't, really, look." Remus pointed at one of the cuts across James's stomach. Despite the heavy scab that was forming over it, both Remus and Sirius could tell it was little more than a scratch.

Sirius growled low in his throat. "I'll kill him."

"Yes, yes, well, wait until I get this murtlap essence applied, will you?" Madam Pomfrey said, rushing back to the bed. "Should sort it out...how are you feeling, dear? Faint? Groggy?" She looked down at James.

"Er...a – a little groggy, yeah," he said. "Feels like a great cat scratched me across the middle."

"Off with your robes, then, we need to get this on right away to keep the scarring down," Madam Pomfrey said. As James sat up gingerly and began to take off his robes, Madam Pomfrey turned to Remus and Sirius. "And you two keep it down, I don't want you waking up Mr. Pettigrew!" she said sternly.

"Yes ma'am," Remus said. Sirius rolled his eyes, then looked over at the other end of the infirmary, where Peter was sound asleep and snoring loudly. "How's Peter doing, Madam Pomfrey?" Remus asked.

"Oh, that was a mighty Bat-Bogey Hex that was put on him...he'll be fine in another day, I expect. Wouldn't say who did it to him, but I'm sure he knows."

The two waited until Madam Pomfrey had finished applying the murtlap essence before they approached James's bed again, sitting on either side of James's legs.

"Snape did Peter in, too," Remus said quietly.

"Like to Transfigure him into a turnip," James said, sounding a little woozy. "Then bury him and let him rot."

"In a sewer," Sirius said.

"We could always have Remus give him a bite," James said.

"Not with a pair of dentures on the end of an exceptionally long broom," Remus said.

"You're really OK?" Sirius asked James.

"Yes, mummy," James replied, sticking out his tongue and promptly wincing for it.

"What happened?" Remus asked.

As James explained how he'd come across Severus, attempted kindness and been blasted for it, Remus's and Sirius's faces grew more and more stormy, though Sirius let out a triumphant snort when James told them how he'd punched the Slytherin seventh year.

"'The Dark Lord is rising,' good God he's gotten cocky, little grease pit," Sirius said.

"You know he's right though," James said quietly.

The three sat in silence for nearly 10 minutes after that.

"Sorry about your birthday, mate," James said.

"There are posters of me with pink feathers for ears," Remus replied. "They are enormous."

"The feathers or the posters?"

"The posters. My face looks positively terrifying."

"I did make it painstakingly to scale," Sirius said, cheering up a bit now that James was returning to his former alertness. Remus reached across the bed to jab Sirius in the side of the head, making James wince as the bed moved.

Despite the playfulness of his friends, despite the fact that the whole fight was starting to seem like a bad dream, James couldn't help running over and over in his mind what Severus had said to him about Voldemort.


	8. Confusion and Cocoa

Just a reminder that I do not own, pretend to own, or ever plan to own the world created by J.K. Rowling, though sometimes I do wish I lived in it.

Also, please review. I love reviews; they keep me going.

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* * *

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**Confusion and Cocoa**

_Peter_

Peter Pettigrew was hopelessly trying to figure out what was going on.

James and Lily were on the couch by the fire in the common room, snogging. It was past midnight and they all had Transfiguration early in the morning, but Peter had woken up with the most voracious craving for a cup of cocoa he had ever known. It was the first week of classes after the new year.

Peter contemplated running back to the dormitory and grabbing James's Invisibility Cloak, but as soon as the thought occurred to him, he changed his mind. He would probably make more noise on the stairs, and by the look of the couple in the corner, Peter thought, he wasn't likely to be noticed anyway. He took a step toward the portrait hole, then another; he went for it, and skittered across the room as quickly as he could, making as little noise as possible. There were rather grotesque sucking noises coming from the couch by the fire. Lily made a little whimpering sound. Peter wrinkled his nose and left the common room.

He wondered what his own girlfriend, Jessica, was doing now, then chortled a bit as he realized he didn't give a damn. As he walked toward the kitchen, he enjoyed reliving a moment he was particularly fond of, when he had managed to get Jessica to give him the password to the Slytherin common room. The look on Severus's face when he'd walked in, bold as anything! Jessica had gotten detention from her Head of House, and Professor McGonagall had told Peter he was "completely out of line, no sense of respect whatsoever, worse than Sirius Black" and made him scrub the stones from the globe that tallied Gryffindor's house points without magic, but he didn't care. It had been worth it just for Severus's expression. And just a day after the greasy git had told him to go back to hanging around with the hot-tempered simpletons in Gryffindor!

Peter's mind wandered back to James and Lily. He wondered if James had finally resorted to some sort of love potion to get Lily's affection – then wondered if love potions would be on the N.E.W.T.s. He reminded himself to study Amortentia, just in case.

Finally in the kitchen corridor, Peter tickled the pear and entered the large room, which was currently dark aside from the great fire blazing at the other end.

"H-hello?" Peter said, his voice sounding loud in the large chamber though he spoke barely above a whisper.

A house elf came forward, wearing the signature Hogwarts tea towel. It had bright brown eyes and, as far as Peter was able to tell, was female. "Yes, sir?" She asked him.

"Oh, hello," Peter said. "I just wondered if I could have a-a cup of cocoa?"

The house elf gave a little curtsy. "Of course, sir, right away!" she squeaked, and disappeared into the shadows.

Peter thought he had rather a lot in common with house elves; it made him slightly uncomfortable speaking to them, though not so uncomfortable that he couldn't get cocoa when he had an unbearable craving for it. Like them, he was always thought of last; like them, he was kept around more for servitude than real company. Peter tried to quell the acid of hatred that rose in his stomach as he thought of his so-called friends in Gryffindor Tower; he'd been spending so much time with the Slytherins lately that he was getting worse at ignoring the questions he'd been able to avoid for nearly seven years. It was getting harder to be friendly around James and Sirius. Remus was nice enough, he decided, aside from being a half-breed. Peter shook his head slightly; he'd never thought of Remus as a half-breed before. Severus had planted that thought in his head, along with the hatred; it was growing like a diseased weed. Peter wondered what would happen when the hatred finally spilled over.

"Your cocoa, sir," the house elf said, handing Peter a mug the size of a cauldron filled to the brim with deep-brown, syrupy-looking liquid.

"Thanks," Peter said absently. The house elf curtsied again and returned to the shadows as Peter, walking very cautiously, headed back to the common room. He was relieved to see that James and Lily were no longer on the couch; he sat down in one of the armchairs and stared into the flames, sipping his drink.


	9. Parties and Pity

**Parties and Pity**

_Remus_

Remus Lupin was drunk.

It was the only explanation for why everything was all shimmery, as though he were looking at it through a haze. It was also a logical explanation, as the boys had just thrown him a birthday party even though he'd turned 17 more than a month ago. His last transformation, just five days before his actual birthday, had been a particularly bad one; it had taken him a full week to recover, and though Sirius, James and Peter brought him cards and cakes in the infirmary, Sirius explained that cards and cakes just weren't enough to celebrate finally being of age in the wizarding world. So a party it was, despite Remus's best efforts to remind them it was close to exams and he didn't like parties all that much anyway.

Nevertheless, when he came back from remedial potions class after dinner that Friday, the Gryffindor common room was decked out as he had never seen it before. Someone had drawn an enormous poster of his head, which was smiling and winking down at them all; there was a chocolate fountain on the table Remus usually used to do his homework; there were bottles of butterbeer, both empty and full, as well as cakes and sandwiches, lining a long table situated against the side wall. What shocked Remus most, however, was that it appeared the whole of Gryffindor House had come to the common room to wish him happy birthday.

Remus had received, as always, books from each of his friends. James had gotten him one that looked suspiciously like a library book; it was decidedly well-worn. Remus would have to return it to Madam Pince in the morning, he thought. Sirius had gotten him an excellent blank book for, as he had put it, "writing down all that thinking you do, and I only got this because I couldn't figure out where to buy a Pensieve, so don't give me that 'I always get books from Sirius' look." Peter had handed him an excellent, if unwrapped, book on magical map-making.

They had all celebrated until past midnight; it was now going on two o'clock in the morning and the common room was now deserted but for Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter. Sirius and James had bet one another that they could out-drink each other. Somehow, bottles of butterbeer kept getting pushed into Remus's hands. At one point, he vaguely remembered, James had broken out an enormous jug of Ogden's Old Firewhisky, which they had passed around and which was now nearly empty. All in all, Remus thought fuzzily, this was a very successful birthday party for a non-birthday.

"I can't believe you made a chocolate fountain," he slurred to the room at large. "I could kiss you. All of you. I don't even care who's idea it was."

Sirius laughed. "It was Peter's idea! Pucker up, Peter! Where is Peter, by the way?"

James, Remus and Sirius looked around, surprised. Peter had been sitting with them a few moments ago – or had that been a couple of hours ago?

"Must've gone to bed," James mumbled, slouching even further down on the couch by the fire. "You know what I love? I love Lily Evans." He hiccuped.

"We know," Sirius said.

"But she doesn't love me," James continued, heaving a sigh worthy of a tragic Greek figure. "She thinks I'm a prat."

"You _are_ a prat," Sirius said, grinning lopsidedly.

"But that's not the point!" James exclaimed, trying to sit up and succeeding only in slipping sideways, so that he was laying on his side on the couch with his feet still on the floor. "The point is that..." he paused, as though to recapture his train of thought, "...the point is that Lily Evans doesn't love me. And I've tried to be so good, I even wrote her that poem -"

"'Evans, you give me jelly legs, and not from that one time you cursed me,'" Remus recited. "It didn't even rhyme," he said, looking sadly at James.

"But I _love_ her!" James moaned, turning his head as he spoke. The end of his sentence became muffled as his face met the couch cushions. "Bfshe wmmeen loo camee," he said.

"I know mate," Sirius said, deeply sympathetic.

"Er...what did he just say?" Remus asked.

"She won't even look at me!" James said, turning his head back to face the other two.

"She was here tonight," Sirius said, attempting to stand but more effectively falling out of his armchair onto the floor in front of James. He patted his friend heartily on the arm. "She was smiling at you."

"But then I told her -" James hiccuped again - "about the bet and she got that frowny look where her forehead goes all GRR and her eyes get this crackly look in them..." James closed his eyes. "Happy birthday, Moony," he said, then turned his face back into the couch cushions. He let out a humungous snore and dropped his bottle of butterbeer onto the floor. It spilled, seeping not only into the rug but also into Sirius's pants.

"I've wet myself," Sirius said, looking down at the spilled butterbeer. "No, wait, that was James, he dropped his butter of bottlebeer...Moony? Moony, I think we're a little tipsy."

But Remus, too, had fallen asleep.


	10. Kissing and Killing

I'm afraid this is a rather meager installment in this series of snippets, as I've been on vacation the last week and haven't done any writing whatsoever. This was to get me back into the habit of writing about my beloved Marauders. I do promise the second part will be updated rather shortly. As always, the Marauders and the world they live in are not mine.

* * *

**Kissing and Killing, Part I**

_James_

James Potter was kissing the love of his life.

He wanted very much to tell Lily she was the love of his life, but the fear that if he did so she might stop kissing him kept him from declaring such things. He also wanted to ask her to marry him, but he hadn't bought a ring yet; he wanted to ask her if she would move in with him after they finished at Hogwarts, but he was too terrified. Instead, he simply settled for kissing her whenever possible, and tried not to be rendered completely brain-numb by the fact that she was kissing him back.

"You, "he said hoarsely when they broke apart, standing awkwardly in a tiny hidden stairwell off the seventh floor that he had never seen before but was very grateful to have found. "Lily Evans."

She smirked and he tried to count the freckles on her nose. He made it to two before he decided he would be better occupied if he kissed her again.

"We're going to be late for Transfiguration," she mumbled against his mouth.

"I brushed my teeth twice this morning," he said. "My gums bled."

She pulled away but was smiling, so James knew he didn't need to duck or run. "Thank you, I think," she said softly. "But don't do that again. Once is enough."

They managed one final kiss before Lily insisted on going to class.

"We could skip it," James said eagerly. He imagined sneaking off from Hogwarts, back to London, for the express purpose of buying a ring.

"No, James," Lily said, running a hand through her long red hair. James watched her, fascinated, until he almost ran into a wall. Lily pulled him gracefully out of the way just in time.

"I would die without you," he said.

"It was just a wall, James," Lily replied, but her cheeks turned slightly pink.

They were only marginally late for Transfiguration, but Professor McGonagall gave them a stern eyeballing as they walked in. James self-consciously straightened his tie and avoided looking at Sirius, though he could see his best friend shaking with silent mirth.

When the lesson began, James was unceremoniously bonked on the head with a piece of parchment.

_Well?_ It said.

_Well what? _He wrote back, and tossed the note behind him, to Sirius.

_Did you do it yet or are you still holding out like a girly girl? _

_Which "do it" are you referring to?_

_THAT ONE! _(this was underlined multiple times).

_No. She won't let me. But it's OK._

_It's OK? Have you been Imperiused? I'll get her thrown in Azkaban if you have!_

_NO I HAVE NOT BEEN IMPERIUSED._

"Potter! Black! Urgent and important as I'm certain your conversation is, please try to refrain from having it until you have properly conjured an armchair! This will be on your N.E.W.T.s!" Professor McGonagall glared at them until they both were sitting quite still, then continued the lesson.

Sirius made soft kissing noises behind James; whether to mock James or to continue Sirius's quest to confirm that McGonagall was in love with him, James wasn't sure. And he found he didn't care. After all, before class, he'd been kissing Lily Evans, and she had been kissing him back.


	11. Kissing and Killing 2

**Kissing and Killing, Part II**

_Sirius_

Sirius Black was shaking.

He, James, and Remus had all just returned to human form (Peter was home for the Christmas holidays, his mother had insisted) in the Shrieking Shack. Remus was crying.

"It'll be all right, Remus," James said slowly, the lingering calm of the stag form affecting him, keeping him from panic. "It's going to be all right."

Remus shuddered and hid his face behind his hands, shaking all over. Sirius moved to sit nearer his friend, who had just killed a man.

"D-d-did you c-c-check him for a w-w-wand?" Remus said, his teeth chattering.

"Yes," Sirius replied. "Muggle. No ID."

"I think he was that tramp who lives up in the caves near Hogsmeade," James said, beginning to lose some of his relaxed tone.

"How could he be Muggle then?" Sirius said impatiently. "It's OK, Remus, it's going to be all right," he said, unconvincingly clapping Remus on the back. Remus had taken his hands away from his face and was staring at the dried blood on them. He abruptly vomited; Sirius barely got out of the way in time.

"S-s-sorry," Remus whispered. "I need some -"

But James was already coming toward him with a bucket and rag Conjured out of thin air.

"C-c-can you do the s-s-spell? I c-c-can't t-t-talk," Remus said, coughing. He was still staring at the blood on his hands.

"Aguamenti!" James said, pointing his wand at the bucket. Cold, clear water poured into the bucket from the tip of his wand.

"Soap," Remus said mournfully.

"Isn't any and isn't Conjurable," Sirius said dully, allowing Remus to move away from him to begin rinsing off the blood.

"We have to go back and s-s-see that man," Remus said, wringing the rag with his still-shaking hands. "We have to help him."

James and Sirius looked at each other with wide eyes. Remus didn't know the man was dead.

"We'll - we'll go, Remus, if you're all right here. We'll...we'll take him to St. Mungo's, if we need to," James lied.

Remus nodded mutely, now scrubbing his arms dazedly.

"Make sure you get back to the castle as soon as you can, all right?" James said.

"James, I think you should stay with him. I'll go check on the b- the man." Sirius looked at James once again and, as had so often during so many other, though much less serious events, silent understanding passed between them.

"All right," James said, frowning.

* * *

Sirius pulled his cloak as tightly around himself as it would go without ripping; a fierce wind had started up and it was hard to follow their tracks through the snow. Any minute now he would come upon the body of the Hogsmeade Muggle. Sirius figured the man probably thought he had been in a barren spot of countryside, with a great lake in the distance near an abandoned castle. Muggles couldn't see Hogsmeade. He wondered how the man had gotten there and what he'd been doing before Remus had broken his neck, shaking him like a toy.

No, Sirius thought forcefully. Not Remus. The wolf.

The wolf had gotten away from James and Sirius before, though never quite so far away. They'd been in the Forbidden Forest when the wolf had smelled something - blood or kin - and had gone tearing away from them, deeper into the dark masses of trees.

Sirius nearly stumbled over the man's body, already frozen in the snow. Already frozen? It hadn't been that long since they'd left him there. Something wasn't right...

Sirius leaned down and touched the man's cold forehead with trembling fingers. Now, closer to the body, he could see the man was bloated with rigor mortis. Something else had killed this man before Remus found him. Sure enough, when Sirius opened the man's jacket, he found four stab wounds, definitely not made by tooth or claw. Looking around, Sirius saw the knife - he quickly deduced that the man had killed himself, throwing the knife away as he bled to death. This was not a werewolf killing. This had been a suicide.

He stood up quickly and closed the man's jacket once again, shivering in the wind. It was snowing again; soon he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the castle.

"No one must know," he muttered to himself, knowing that none in the magical community would care the wolf had attacked a man who'd already been dead. He drew his wand and pointed it at the body, which he Transfigured into a holly bush. He stared at the bush, then turned aside and vomited into the snow before stumbling back to the Shrieking Shack. The cold light of dawn increased has he left the forest.

* * *

The next night, in the empty Gryffindor common room, Sirius told James what he had found.

James nodded slowly, looking like a scared teenager now that the effects of the stag mind were long gone.

"I don't know what else...if he was already dead...but Remus...?" James said, anxiously running his hand through his hair.

"Follow the St. Mungo's story," Sirius said. "When he gets out of the infirmary, tell him we took the man to St. Mungo's."

"He'll think he turned him."

That statement was met with a long silence. There didn't seem to be any way around what had happened that wouldn't leave Remus feeling guilty for having changed a man into a werewolf or terrified that he had killed someone while transformed - his greatest fear. Sirius stared into the fire, a leaden weight of dread in his stomach.

"We'll have to tell him the man ran away," James said decisively. "At least then he won't think he's a murderer."

"He's not a murderer," Sirius said sharply.

"I know. But even if we tell him about the stab wounds...would he believe it?"

"We could persuade him," Sirius said, indicating his wand, hating himself for saying it.

"There's no other way," James said quietly.

"And Peter?" Sirius asked, the final, and hardest, question.

Another long silence followed it.

"I think we should keep it to ourselves, " James said.


	12. Celebrations and Compromises

**Celebrations and Compromises**

_Peter_

Peter Pettigrew was cheering.  
Gryffindor had just won the House Cup; the Slytherins were all slinking away looking disappointed, some hurling insults over at the Gryffindor team. Peter didn't care that they called him Pig-faced Pettigrew and Pinky Pettigrew today. He followed the gold-and-scarlet-bedecked crowd as it chased after the Gryffindor Quidditch team, James Potter at the lead.  
"James! James!" Peter yelled, trying to catch the Chaser's attention; Sirius and Remus were up at the head of the crowd, but Peter, being smaller, had been shunted further and further back until he was almost at the end of the screaming Gryffindors. As with the Slytherins' insults, he didn't care today.  
Finally the team was at the locker rooms. The majority of the crowd continued past the small hut, toward the castle. Peter was sure they would have the party going in full force once he arrived. Remus and Sirius had hung back, too, as well as an older boy in Ravenclaw garb who was clearly waiting for his girlfriend.  
After several minutes, James emerged from the locker rooms, wearing a hopeful expression. As he glanced around, however, and realized, Peter thought, that Lily Evans hadn't waited for him to declare her love now that he was a member of the winning Quidditch team. Peter watched as James's face lit up once again, this time with the victory of acquiring the House Cup. James stepped forward and Peter joined Remus and Sirius in clapping him on the back. He grinned around at them.  
"Shall we travel up to the tower for some excellent nosh and salty wenches?" James said, turning to head in that direction.  
"I'm all for both," Sirius said heartily.  
"Where would you find a salty wench in this environment?" Remus wondered. "We're hardly by the sea."  
"Oh Remus," Sirius said in a pitying way. "Dear, innocent Remus. We shall make the wenches salty!"  
Peter giggled at the image of Remus awkwardly sprinkling salt on a rather buxom blond woman. "How do we make -"  
"Don't ask, Peter, please," Remus said, blushing. Sirius and James cackled as they entered the castle.  
When they entered the common room, a roar of sound met them - the older Ravenclaw boy and his girlfriend had somehow beaten them up to the tower, Peter noticed, and the entire Quidditch team was all together. It looked as if every Gryffindor and quite a few students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were in on the festivities. Peter made his way over to the snack table and grabbed a butterbeer; nearby, a Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were arguing over whether James was more attractive than Sirius. Turning, Peter saw another girl, wearing the Hufflepuff uniform, who was sitting quietly in the corner, watching this argument. Peter knew she was in his year but couldn't remember her name. He took a draught of butterbeer for courage and walked up to her.  
"Hullo," he said, smiling in what he hoped was a kind way. "You don't look as if you're having much fun." He sat down beside her.  
"My friend made me come up, she didn't want to be here by herself," the girl said, gesturing over at the arguing Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. "I don't know what she was worried about, looks like everyone in our House who's dating someone in Gryffindor came up..." she trailed off, staring over at Remus, who was deep in conversation with an older, dark-haired Ravenclaw girl wearing glasses.  
"Do you like him?" Peter asked tentatively. The way she was watching Remus was decidedly more than bored observation.  
The girl jumped and promptly turned beet red. "What? No, I -"  
"I could introduce you if you do," Peter said over her protests.  
She looked at him with narrowed eyes, suspicious. "Yes, you...I've seen you around with them, haven't I?"  
"Yes. I'm one of them," he said proudly, puffing out his chest.  
"My name's Amanda Turley," she said, holding out her hand. Peter shook it and introduced himself. "You really know Remus?"  
"Yes, I do," he said. "But if you would rather stay over here -"  
"I...I think so. For now, anyway," she said, her smile fading swiftly. Peter looked over at Remus and the Ravenclaw girl and saw that they were now standing rather closer together than might be considered casual.  
"Oh," he said in a small voice. "I'm sorry."  
"It's all right," she said. They were silent for a few moments, Amanda watching Remus and Peter watching James and Sirius laugh their way around the room. He was about to stand up and join his two idols when Amanda spoke again. "Have you done that essay for Professor Sprout yet?"  
Peter looked down at his hands, embarrassed. "No, I - I haven't started it yet." She smiled encouragingly at him. "Me neither."  
"Maybe...maybe we could meet, in the library, and work on it together?" Peter said hopefully. As much as he enjoyed spending time with James and Sirius while they helped him with his homework, he was rather more enthusiastic about spending time with a real, live girl. And he could brag to them about it later.  
Amanda appeared to struggle to look away from Remus, who was now holding the Ravenclaw girl's face in his hands and smiling at her warmly. When she looked at Peter, she smiled tightly. "Yes, all right," she said.  
Peter was so happy that he didn't care when Amanda continued to cast longing looks across the room.


	13. Anger and accidental magic

Remus Lupin found himself sitting across the table from the person he wanted to speak to least. That person was Sirius Black.

Sirius didn't speak, but his anxiousness was revealed in the way he shifted his weight in the chair he'd chosen. Remus chanced a glance at him and discovered Sirius wasn't even pretending to study – he was just sitting there, looking around the room. Remus took a few deep breaths to calm himself, drank a bit of his tea (he suddenly wished it was a great jug of Ogden's Old Firewhisky), and closed the book he'd been reading.

"What?" He said quietly.

"I just wanted to say that it was meant as a prank," Sirius said, still not looking at Remus. "I thought if he got scared, maybe he'd stop bothering us."

Remus struggled not to clench his fist, but did anyway. He put his hand under the table so Sirius wouldn't see how close he was to hexing him all the way back to Grimmauld Place. "I could have killed him," he said in a whisper, gritting his teeth.

"I guess I wasn't thinking of that part," Sirius said. "It's not as if you're dangerous to _us_, and it's hard to remember -"

"To remember that I'm a vicious Dark creature?" Remus spat. His teacup suddenly cracked in two; the tea slid across the scarred surface of the table. "To remember that when the moon is full, the one thing I want most in the world is to kill humans? Which part of that is difficult for you, Sirius?" Remus could hear his voice getting louder, but he didn't bother to control it. "Because it's awfully easy for me to remember those things!"

Several people were looking at them, including James and Peter, who were in the usual places near the Gryffindor common room's fire. Remus looked over at them, suddenly ashamed. James was frowning; Peter was staring at them with his mouth open.

"_Muffliato," _Sirius muttered, waving his wand.

"Thanks," Remus said grudgingly as the inhabitants of the common room turned back to their tasks. James and Peter were still watching.

"Look, I know it was stupid, all right? But old Snivellus didn't get hurt. Nothing _happened._" Sirius picked at a splinter in the table.

"Something could have," Remus said stubbornly.

"Fine!" Sirius said, standing up. "Fine. Just – just sit over here in your corner, with your tea and your book, and – and..." Sirius shook his head, too angry for words.

James walked over to them.

"Come to gang up on me, have you?" Remus growled.

James just looked at him for a moment, incredulous. "No, actually. I was going to say that you both need to forget this before next moon, or you're going to end up tearing each other to bits."

"I wouldn't mind," Sirius said, but without enthusiasm.

"Nor would I," Remus said loudly.

James sat down in a third chair, flipping it around to straddle it. "Sirius was a berk, all right? He didn't think about what he was doing." James put a hand up as Sirius began to speak. "Stop, Sirius. You know it as well as the rest of us. You crossed a line."

Sirius closed his mouth and sat down.

"Remus, we all know it was dangerous, and we know what _could_ have happened, but it _didn't_ happen, yeah? So just _chill_, would you?" James sighed heavily. "And I doubt Sirius is going to do anything like that again, no matter how disgusting and filthy Snape is."

James and Remus looked at Sirius, who nodded, albeit a bit petulantly, and remained silent.

"Now would you both please come over to the fire, because if I have to tell Peter one more time how to do a proper Banishing Charm I'm going to vomit." James stood up and walked back to the fire, leaping over the couch as usual to sit next to Peter. He did not look back at them.

Remus repaired his teacup and was about to use a corner of his sleeve to sop up the spilled tea when he heard Sirius mumble "_Evanesco," _and it disappeared.

"Thanks," Remus said. "I didn't know you could do that."

Sirius shrugged. "James and I got bored that weekend you were in the hospital wing."

Remus stood up, picking up his book, and started toward the common room fire. Sirius put a hand on his shoulder; when Remus turned, he was surprised to see Sirius holding out his right hand as though introducing himself.

"Truce?" Sirius said, finally looking at Remus.

Remus shook Sirius's hand. "Truce. But if you ever do that again -"

"You'll kill me, right," Sirius said, and his easy smile returned.

"Right," Remus said, unable to help grinning.


	14. Cloak and Confession

**Cloak and confession**

_James_

James Potter was walking down the hallway under the Invisibility Cloak when he ran straight into Lily Evans.

She shrieked; the only thing he could think to do was to drag her into a nearby classroom.

"Lily, be quiet, it's all right, it's just me," he said, taking the cloak off.

She stared at him for a moment.

"What are you doing out here at night?" They asked each other simultaneously.

"Right," Lily said; she started pacing. "I won't tell you if you don't tell me."

"I'll tell you if you tell me," James said, smirking. Lily stopped moving and looked at him, sizing him up. James tried to stand up as straight as he could.

"All right," she said, her mouth twitching. "What is the great James Potter doing knocking about Hogwarts at this hour?" She perched on the desk at the front of the room, folded her arms over her chest, and watched him.

He stared at the way the moonlight was making her skin look as though it were made of silk, and looked into her bright green eyes. "Nicking food," he said. "We're...studying. Up in the dorm." What the boys were actually doing was making a map, the most amazing map ever to exist, but James bit his lip to keep himself from telling Lily, though he very much wanted to.

"And yet," Lily pointed out, "you haven't got any food."

"Oh, yeah, I was on my way down, not back," James said hastily.

"You were going in the wrong direction, did you know?" Lily said, grinning wickedly.

"Oh, I – was I?" James looked around, gave a very unconvincing start as though he'd only just realized where he was, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I guess the staircases got me turned around."

"James Potter," she said, shaking her head, "I find it so, _so_ hard to believe that you could just get 'turned around' by the staircases. You, of all people."

James gulped. Lily was still grinning. James did feared that grin, and yet he loved it.

"Oh, all right! All right. We're – we're making a map. It's going to show all the grounds and the people, and where they are. I was just out to check this one passageway, to make sure we got the location right."

Lily's eyes grew wide. "But you're only fourth years! How could you do that kind of magic?" James gulped again, but the idea of explaining the map – the magic of which he actually _knew _something about – to beautiful, wonderful Lily Evans, was too much to avoid.

"Well, it's – it's simpler, really, than it sounds," he said, glancing at her as he walked over to the blackboard. He picked up the chalk and scrawled a rough map of the grounds across it. "We used this charm Remus found in an old book in the Restricted section – instead of tracking the _people_, you see, it tracks the _grounds_, so whoever walks on the grounds gets identified because the grounds can recognize their step. But it keeps getting itself mixed up, so we've got to fix everything in its place." He turned to look back at her. She nodded, her mouth hanging open in surprise. She caught him looking and quickly closed it.

"And, and what, you've just put all the names of everyone here into the map?" she asked.

"Well, that's the part we haven't quite figured out yet. How to keep it going, you know, after we graduate, and how to keep it recognizing all the new students. But Sirius came up with -" James stopped talking. He swiftly drew his wand, erased the map on the blackboard, and whirled to face her. "Are you asking me these things so you can go and tell Dumbledore what we're doing?" He looked at the floor. "It's no secret you hate me."

"I – well – I was _going_ to, but James, this is incredible magic, I don't know if even Severus would be able to -" Lily stopped talking, crossed her arms over her chest again, and blushed.

James scowled at her. "Going to run and tell old Snivellus that we're up to no good? Going to say how bad we are for breaking the rules, making a magical artifact without written permission from the Ministry? Hoping he'll tell Dumbledore for you, are you?" He pocketed his wand and picked up the cloak. "I'm going back to the dorm now." He threw the cloak over himself and left the room.

Lily stared after him, bewildered. "Actually," she told the empty room, "I was _going_ to say, I doubt even Severus would be able to deny that that's some brilliant spellwork." Lily stood in the classroom a minute longer, growing more angry the more she thought of what had just happened. "James Potter," she spat, still talking to an empty room. "Bloody prat." She slid off the desk and left, slamming the door shut behind her.

It wasn't until he was back in the dorm with Remus, Sirius and Peter that James realized Lily had never said what she'd been doing out of Gryffindor Tower.


End file.
